Update: As we suspected, this really isn't official. In fact, it's a fan render that was published on The Verge's forums two and a half months ago. Mystery solved! (Thanks, c3vzn!)

-- end of update

The closer spring gets, the more rumors we can expect to see about Samsung's next-Next Big Thing (TM). Today's alleged leak comes to us via Twitter, and let's not beat around the bush - this is almost certainly not the Galaxy S IV. We'll begin where any photo analysis starts: the pixels. Take a look at the USB port in particular.

If this picture is from Samsung, then it was made early enough in the design process that the graphic artist here knows his work will never see the light of day. To say nothing of the literally impossible lighting angles (which apparently results in identical reflections whether the device is standing up or lying down), the USB port is surrounded by a white glow and, judging by the front and rear shots, it is just a gash cut into the hardware.

Try it for yourself. Grab your phone and hold it at the angles shown above. At best, the USB port should be barely visible from one side, not sticking out clearly and obviously from both. The "SAMSUNG" logo just looks wrong, too - the spacing of the letters is far too wide. The phone also appears to have three speaker grilles on the front (two on the bottom, one on top), which really doesn't make much sense.

Moving past the weird Photoshop job, some of the specs seem similarly out of place. Samsung has been trying to steer clear of "TouchWiz," opting instead for "Nature UX." Also, the phone appears to be wrapped in a metallic casing which is very far from typical Samsung design language. In fact, it's the kind of thing that places itself firmly in the "wish fulfillment" area of rumors. That category of "leaks" that seem entirely incredible on their face, but we cover them anyway because, gosh darn it! We want it to be real!

Most of the things that this slide claims will be in the next iteration of the Galaxy S family is either expected or predictable: more RAM (depending on your market), new Gorilla Glass, and maybe a 5" 1080p display.

However, no one expects "Bluetooth 5.0" to be featured on the GS4. Especially since Bluetooth 5.0 doesn't even exist.

Eric is a snarky technophile with a taste for the unusual. When he's not obsessing about Android, you can usually find him obsessing about movies, psychology, or the perfect energy drink. Eric weaves his own special blend of snark, satire, and comedy into all his articles.

Comments

Three speaker grilles makes sense. The two on the bottom are stereo audio speakers, while the one on the top is the earpiece (mono speaker for calls).

The iPhone is currently the only phone on the market that does this, though.

http://www.androidpolice.com/ David Ruddock

I guess, but that would be some serious over-engineering.

mesmorino

lets not get carried away, its not over-engineering of any sort, let alone "serious" over-engineering. Putting phone speakers on the front makes sense, it's the same reason you'd put tablet speakers on the front, and is not some miracle of complex engineering.

Serious over-engineering would be an IP65 rated phone like that Sony Ericsson one

http://www.androidpolice.com/ David Ruddock

Two external speakers right next to a microphone and a secondary microphone, along the bottom of the phone? I'd argue that's getting rather complex.

hahahi20

Remember the Nokia x7? It had stereo speakers at the bottom of the device.

http://elder-tylers-blog.com/ pache71

One of the bottom grills on the iPhone is the mic. But still, it makes sense.

Tommy Thompson

The iphone only has one speaker on the bottom genius.

hahahi20

The Nokia x7 however, does not.

http://pharaohtechblog.blogspot.com/ Conan Kudo (ニール・ゴンパ)

Insults are not necessary.

Tommy Thompson

There was no insult in my message bud.

spacekobra

At least there is no laser keyboard.
Why on earth does everybody want a laser keyboard?

http://www.Mikereviews.co.uk/ Mike Brown

some men just want to watch the world burn.

John O’Connor

lol. I have one, and it certainly needs a lot of work before it's ready for mainstream consumption. think poor key placement and a lack of 10-key or dedicated mouse function

spacekobra

Wow, thanks. Your quasi review was really helpful (I really mean that) I had no idea if they were of any quality.

Kenny O

Don't forget about the transparent display. I knew right away this was a fake since it didn't have the transparent display.

spacekobra

How could I forget the transparent display?
I mean the iPhone 5 has one! Look at Google+! Everything "Yes I know that" and "Did you know" and "interesting engineering" (the list goes on sadly) is true!

JG

Assuming we're thinking of the same thing, it could come in handy - maybe more so with tablets than phones, but... It'd be kind of like a bluetooth keyboard, except you wouldn't have to lug around yet another gadget around all day....

spacekobra

Definitely more useful/practical in tablets.

marcusmaximus04

Beside all the evidence posted here: look at the tops and bottoms of the two "devices" standing up. They're both perfectly horizontal, yet the device is leaning to the side. Were it real, the phone design is either bizarrely tilted, or it was designed by MC Escher.

mofoliar

If is true.. i would love to have one.. nice looks and specs!

Bariman43

I'm glad that's not the Galaxy S4. Why would Samsung deviate from the gorgeous organic design of the S3 to yet another rounded rectangle?

David Barenburg

Since the number 4 is bad luck in Korea, I seriously doubt their final product will have the number 4 or IV in the name.

http://www.androidpolice.com/ David Ruddock

Hey, I thought about that a while ago too! I'm really curious if they'll go for it, because you're dead-on about that. There's even a name for it - tetraphobia.

On the other hand, how often do westerners stop unlucky number 13 from doing whatever they want? It may not have as much cultural significance as you'd think, this is a business and there's profit to be had. If their marketing dept and their focus groups aren't bothered by it, why not?

hahahi20

Except that several buildings have no 13th floor? And that I can't come up with one major product that has 13 in it's name (except Dell XPS-13 maybe....)

mesmorino

Right, several buildings... In a country of *millions*.

hahahi20

I should have said 'more than several, because it happens quite a lot' Let's not forget, there are not that many normal buildings with more than 12 floors.

http://www.facebook.com/lucyparanormal Daniel Tiberius

They might still call it that in the States or outside of Korea. With US carriers always wanting to name things themselves they may just do that.

http://AndroidPolice.com/ Liam Spradlin

Good point. I'll be interested to see whether they react to the number 4. After all the Galaxy S line is an international product - I'm not sure if their superstition would interfere with a critical element of Samsung Mobile's business.

http://www.facebook.com/ajac09 Anthony Evans Jr

looks like an HTC phone lol

Cuvis

Totally agreed. The design looks very much like something out of HTC's One line, with the exception of the USB port on the bottom.

http://www.facebook.com/duckofdeath Hans Pedersen

I think it's a retouched Ativ S.

RajivSK

It does look nice though. It has more in common with the original GS, which I think was the best looking S to date. Well as long as it isn't going to be an asymmetrical blob like the S3. Still can't get used to that one..

itznfb

I thought that at first as well. Second glance though it somewhat resembles Galaxy Tab design and doesn't seem so far fetched.

http://jordanhotmann.com/ Jordan Hotmann

Haven't seen a phone in quite a while with a hole for the microphone on the front of the device. Not to mention, there's a hole on the bottom for the microphone...bad, just bad.

Edit: I also don't see Samsung abandoning the physical home button for some time...

amels802

That is one good looking device... Looks more like an HTC design though

http://twitter.com/Defenestratus Defenestratus

But I WANT it to look like that. Pretty sharp looking phone.

http://twitter.com/WillieFDiazSF William Diaz

The big give away here is that the USB port is facing the opposite direction. The larger side up is typical of HTC, and the smaller side up is typical of Samsung - this device however is showing the HTC alignment of use of USB.

http://www.androidpolice.com/ Artem Russakovskii

I have no doubt that this is a fan render. Samsung has never and will never put out images laid out like this, and with specs printed out like that. It screams fan render, just like a million that concept-phones.com gets every month.

I still don't get those giant phones! I know this isn't real, but it's not improbable that it will have a 5" screen. I think they should not be larger than 4.5"! How the hell are you supposed to do stuff with just one hand if your thumb can't reach all the screen?

József Király

The design is actually quite nice, even if it's only a "quick" mock-up. For the USB slot, I have a theory: maybe the designer wanted it to be covered with that luminescent strip they use on laptop chargers (so you can easily plug your phone in at night)? At least that's what I get from it.

Otherwise, the bad grammar in the spec sheet gives the fake away. Samsung would never word such things as "Removeable SD card slot". Seriously, how do you remove an SD card slot?

mesmorino

You're reading it wrong. I'm reading it as a slot for a removable SD card, rather than a removable slot.

Parsing that line isn't that hard, it's not even hard at all

http://AndroidPolice.com/ Liam Spradlin

Still, Samsung (or their promotional agency) would certainly have copy writers capable of writing clearer sentences for an official press image.

József Király

mesmorino, while parsing it is not hard, it is grammatically incorrect. As Liam said it, Samsung for sure would have someone at their marketing department who can speak proper english, what doesn't sound weird :)

mesmorino

Oh I agree, I'm not claiming it's correct at all, just that it's readable enough to be somewhat ambiguous. I read it the second way first, I had to re read it before I saw the error

jalen venable

Would be cool nonetheless. But damn look at those Specs Woo!

TechGuy21

fugly

PCSievers

Reminds me of the swan scene in Firefly:
Kaylee: It's a Samsung. I like it.
Inara: You do?
Kaylee: Looks like it was made with, you know, longing. Made by a person really longed to see a Samsung.
Inara: Perhaps because they'd only heard of them by rough description.

It misses so many Samsung design language cues that it is far too obviously a fake before you drill down into the detail. A metal construct is plausible enough given the Windows 8 ATIV S and the use of fake chrome bumpers in previous designs, but durilium has a lighter shade and it is more likely they will stick with glossy plastic for a large amount of the build, esp the rear panel. The basic outline is a bit like the Note 2 but the edge border inc the speaker lip screams HTC. Front speakers would be entirely new, the top speaker design is a really specific Samsung feature, as is the home button which the Note 8 leaks indicate is staying for a while, and a separate camera/multifunction button is ripped from the RAZR i. Also the USB port is the wrong way round for Samsung.

BrianLipp

This looks more like a HTC phone than a Samsung phone

deltatux

Bluetooth 5.0 itself was enough to call fake lol.

epps720

You know, it is.... "The Next Big Thing!" And what would make it bigger than to have a feature that doesn't exist.

http://www.facebook.com/michaelgonzalez2012 Michael Gonzalez

That is exactly what I said when I read that. The Bluetooth Protocol Stack for Bluetooth 5 hasn't even been established yet. That means there isn't even a prototype standardization we can call Bluetooth 5 yet. There's no way in hell that protocol is going to appear in just a few months. It's doubtful if it will even come out by the end of this year.

MrHaroHaro

Doesn't look plastic enough. Looks like an HTC phone if they hadn't abandoned their 2011 design language (thinking of the HTC Sensation in particular).

Quad core? 4G LTE not supporting in my fkn country!
Samsung must be kidding adding QaudCore while they already showed up Octa Core!

http://google.com/+derekross Derek Ross

ERIC SMASH!

GragonV

Besides the USB-fault in the concept image, one more reason why this is fake: SS can never make a phone looks...as great as that concept (they could, but now they can not, with those sh** designers =,=)

Dan

I think I might like this look better than the real S III. I could live without the chrome around the earpiece, but that's minor. I love the fact that there's no damned hardware button.

I really, really, really love people who still say things like:
..........I think they should not be larger than 4.5"!..........

Can't you just be happy with controlling your own life and let us have the phones we want? Go buy an S III Mini. Nobody is telling you that you can't have a smaller phone.

acer1096xxx

I wouldn't want it to be real. It doesn't have Octa-core! :P

tbonefsg

Looks too good to be a real Samsung. throw some cheap plastic on it. ( Samsung owner)

Jon Garrett

Samsung should stop FKing around and just let me design the Galaxy S IV.

GraveUypo

making a more convincing fake is so easy.
takes no more than a couple of minutes of browsing for ideas and 2 hours of 3dsmax.
photoshop fakes are so lazy :|

Magnus100

It obviously looks fake, but still better than any phone Samsung has ever produced. Samsung needs to come up with something really exceptionally beautiful and premium looking and feeling with the Galaxy S IV and the Note III

http://www.facebook.com/invisibleelvis Jack Crowe

Besides the laser keyboard it looked perfect.

X-Player

i wish the original s4 looked like this.. nice design.. :)

PINJ

How Would Anyone In Their Right Mind Believe This To Be The Next Galaxy?? Think About Samsung's Design Choices In The Past And You'll Have It

shadyman

The person who posted it was immensely high and needs to practice his Photoshop skills better. Bluetooth 5.0? Seriously? It looks like a 10-year old got access to MSPaint and created this rubbish.

http://cashd00d.co.cc/ WHAT?

I could photoshop something better while I'm sleeping on the toilet.

http://cashd00d.co.cc/ WHAT?

Also, it's missing the "Samsung button" that they will no doubt be sticking with to differentiate from other Androids.

http://twitter.com/Alteris101 Alteris

If that has a curved screen i'd swap my phone for that.

heat361

It look like that or it could look like all the Samsung plastic phones,but I don't like their ui.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005173500102 Joaquin Perez

it actually is a good design! i liked it if it was real!

Mitchel

This is my render. lol

Luc

Shit i would buy that phone, it looks nice as hell. And front speakeras just make sense. Samsung should hire that guy

http://twitter.com/trickedoutdavid David Margolin

thats a good lookin phone though...

http://twitter.com/HerXtheSlayer Mario

not enough cheap plastic on the phone, of course it's not real :)

http://twitter.com/misterE33 Mr E

I just want front facing [and stereo?] speakers!

Aron Tripp

I do hope that the GSIV DOES NOT HAVE A PHYSICAL HOME BUTTON!! Please God!